Cell wall carton



Dec. 18, 1956 H. v. BOLDING ET AL 2,774,530

CELL WALL CARTON 3 Sheets-Sheet l Filed Feb. 27, 1956 FI ELE." INVENToRHaager V. 50A //va Een/557 6 Gau/N5 /TZ'Ofe/VEY Dec. 18, 1956 H. v.BoLDlNG ET AL 2,774,530

CELL WALL. CARTON 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Feb. 27, 1956 INVENTORS xERA/57 6.6044/5/1/5 ATTORNEY Dec. 18, 1956 H. V. BOLDING ET AL CELL WALLCARTON 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed Feb. 27, 1956 INVENTOR S M/fr K .Bom/Ms Ywm MA a L E m E@ w United States Patent O 2,774,530 CELL WALL CARTONHubert V. Bolding, Clarksville, and Ernest G. Gowens, Jeffersonville,Ind., assignors to The Bradley & Gilbert Company, Louisville, Ky., acorporation of Kentucky Application February 27, 1956, Serial No.568,015 Claims. (Cl. 229-34) This invention relates to tray-type, spaceddoublewall, collapsible cartons, preferably of the single-blank type.More specifically this invention is directed to improvements in thestructure of this type carton to produce a better braced and interlockedfolding box structure which results in a reduction in the amount andweight of board material used while at the same time securing therequired strength and rigidity.

A considerable demand has developed in recent years for a spaceddouble-wall carton which can be shipped to the user in collapsed,flattened condition ready for automatic machine or hand erectioninvolving a minimum of operative steps. These cartons are found to be ofexceptional value in protecting delicate items as well as in providinginsulated boxes for frozen foods and the like. A carton of this typemust be easy to manufacture, shippable in flattened condition, easilyerectable, and structurally sound and rigid when erected. The meeting ofthese requirements with a completely satisfactory double-wall carton haspresented a real challenge to the industry.

The present invention meets this challenge with the provision of adouble-wall carton which is made from a minimum of material, permits theuse of lighter weight board, and secures the required strength andrigidity through unique structural arrangements of the bracing andoperating elements.

The instant invention comprises a bottom from which extend side and endwall forming panels which are scored to provide collapsible doublewalls. Outer wall bellows fold means are provided for automaticallyerecting the double walls, the bellows fold means being arranged tofasten the side outer walls to the top inner surface of the end outerwalls, thereby increasing the strength and rigidity and facilitatingerection. The side inner walls are affixed to the bottom by gluedpanels. The double walls provide an uninterrupted cell space around ltheentire periphery of the carton. An inner wall bellows fold means orbrace means is provided for rigidifying the complete structure and forproviding a face-to-face abutment for the end inner walls. This abuttingcontact provides a positive stop as the end inner wall is broughtdownwardly into the erected carton and aids in positively insuring theinterlocking of the lock means which maintains the carton in rigiderected condition. The end inner walls have tiap extensions whichprovide a double thickness to the end inner wall, and these twothicknesses in combination with the brace means, the outer wall bellowsmeans, and the outer wall provide tive thicknesses of board at thev endof the carton; this provides added rigidity and strength. Various uniquemeans for interlocking the elements of the box are provided.

As the carton is erected, the outer wall bellows fold means causeserection of the side walls and the bracing means for the end inner Wallsare pulled up into erected condition by this action.

Various other objects and meritorious features of the invention willbecome apparent from the following description taken in conjunction withthe drawings wherein like numerals refer to like parts throughout thevarious figures and wherein:

Fig. 1 is a plan view illustrating a form of a die-cut, scored andadhesively treated blank;

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Fig. 2 is a top view of a carton in collapsed condition and made fromthe blank in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a perspective View of the carton in Fig. 2 in erectedcondition;

Fig. 4 is a perspective sectional View taken on line 4 4 of Fig. 3 withthe inner end wall in position for downward movement into lock-ingposition;

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary perspective view of an end portion of the box inFig. 3 with certain glued portions broken apart for purposes of clarity;

Fig. 6 is a side sectional View taken on line 6 6 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 7 is an end sectional view taken on line 7-7 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 8 is a fragmentary plan view illustrating another form of adie-cut, scored and adhesively treated blank, one end of the blank beingshown, the other end being similar;

Fig. 9 is `a fragmentary perspective view of an end portion of a boxmade from the ,blank in Fig. 8 with certain glued portions broken apartfor purposes of clarity; and

Fig. l0 is an end sectional view taken on line 10-10 of Fig. 9 with thebox in full erected condition.

As seen in Fig. 1, paperboard stock is die-cut, scored, and adhesivelytreated to provide a rectangular bottom panel 15 from t-he side and endedges of which extend side wall forming panels 17, 13 and end wallform-ing panels 19, 20, respectively. The side wall forming panels 17,18, are delineated by parallel score lines' to form outer walls 21, sidebridging panels 2,2, side inner walls 23 and bottom panels 24 which areglued to bottom 15 by glue areas 41. The end wall forming panels 19, 20include end outer walls 25, end bridging panels 26, and end inner wall27.

Outer wall bellows fold means 28, 2S, 29, 29 interconnect the adjacentvertical edge portions of the outer walls 21, 21, 25, 25. Fig. l showstwo arrangements' for forming the bellows fold means. At the left-handside of Fig. l, each of the bellows fol-d means 28, 2S comprises a panelwhich is hinged to a vertical side edge of a side outer Wall 21. Each ofthe bellows fold means panels is' divided by a diagonal score line (at45 degrees) into a first portion 30 extending from the side outer wall21 and a second port-ion 31 which is attached by glue area 32 inface-to-face engagement with the end outer wall 25. At the right-handside of Fig. l, each outer wall bellows fold means 29, 29 differs frombellows fold means 28, 28 discus'sed above in that the second portions32, 32 are hinged to the `side edge of end outer wall 25.

The side inner walls 23, 23 have brace means extending from their sideedges, these brace means including inner end braces 33 and means such asanchor tabs 34 for xedly positioning the inner end braces 33 in properposition. The -anchor tabs 34 are afiixed as by glue areas 35 inface-to-face engagement with bottom 15. The inner end braces arediagonally scored v(at 45 degrees) to 4allow collapsing, as will befurther explained. The hinge line or joint between each inner end brace33 and its respective side inner wall 23 is cut to provide a lug holecut 45 which upon bending of the hinge joint forms a lug receiving slot36 (Figs. 4 and 7). The side edges of the end inner w-alls 27 haveextensions 42 which are folded back and adhered to the surface of theinner end walls Y27 to strengthen the same, the fold lines having lugcuts 37 whereby Ilugs 3S are formed upon the folding of the extensions.Lugs 3S are designed to engage and llock in their respective slots 36 tohold the box in erected condition.

In Fig. 2 the carton of Fig. 1 is shown in glued and collapsedcondition. It will be appreciated from Fig. 2 that standard machinerycan be used to accomplish the cutting, scoring, gluing and foldingoperations to produce the carton of Fig. 2 from the blank of Fig. l.

In erecting the carton from the collapsed condition shown in Fig. 2 t-othe erected condition shown in Fig. 3, the end walls 25, 27 are liftedthereby bringing the side walls 21, 23 to vertical position with theside inner walls 23 spaced from the outer side walls. The end innerwalls 27 are then moved downwardly (Fig. 4) into the box and the lugs 3Swill then automatically lock in the lug receiving slots 36 when the endinner walls 27 reach vertical position. The inner end braces 33 of thebrace means are moved into vertical position as the side walls 21, 23are erected as shown in Fig. 5 wherein certain glue joints have beenbroken to show the structure more clearly. The inner end braces 33 arethen in position -for receiving the end inner walls 27 when the endinner wall is moved downwardly between the side inner walls 23. It willbe noted that the inner end braces 33 have anchor tabs 34 extending fromtheir bottom hinge lines which are aflixed in face-to-face engagementwith the bottom 15. In Figs. 3 and 5 these anchor tabs 34 extendoutwardly toward the end outer walls 25. In the slightly modiiiedstructure shown in Fig. 4, one of these anchor tabs extends inwardlytoward the center of the box.

Figs. 6 and 7 show the advantageous bracing feature of the instantinvention whereby a substantial portion of the surface of end innerwal-l 27 is strongly supported by a face-to-face engagement with theinner end braces 33. The provision of this desirable rigidifyingstructure is accomplished without causing the addition of steps to thecarton erection procedure and without prohibitively increasing the costof material and manufacture.

The blank and carton structure shown in Figs. 8-10 is of a basic designsimilar to that of Figs. l-3 and includes the outer wall bellows foldmeans 28 which enables automatic erection of the double side walls 2l,23 as the end walls 25, 27 are moved to a vertical position.

The brace means of Figs. 8-10 differs from that of Figs. 1e7. As seen inFigs. 8 and 9, the inner end braces 50 have bottom tabs 51 extendingtherefrom which overlie the bottom l5. Extending from the bottom tabs 51are end wall tabs 52 which are axed in face-to-face engagement with endouter wall 2S by means of glue areas 53. The inner end braces 50 andtheir respective bottom tabs 51 are cut at their common hinge lines 54to form depending lugs 55.

The end inner wall 27 of Figs. S-lO has a tuck panel 57 extendingtherefrom which is sandwiched between the bottom tabs 51 and the bottom15 when the box is in erected condition. Two modifications are shown inFigs. 8-10 for forming slots which house lugs 55, the slots being formedby cuts at the common hinge line of the end inner walls 56 and the tuckpanel 57. The modification on the left side of Figs. 8 and 10 involves acompletely cut out portion, while the modiiication on the right-handside involves a partially cut portion which presents the desirablenished appearance as seen in Fig. l0.

Extensions 42 of the inner end walls 27 are shown as being of the webstyle, that is, integrally hinged to the side edges of the end innerwalls 27. lt will be appreciated that non-web styles may be employed ifdesired.

To aid in clearly defining the instant invention, the terms bottom,side, vertieaL end and the like have been used throughout. It will bereadily appreciated that the carton of the instant invention is readilyusable as a cover or side structure in which case the various elementswould be more properly designated by other terms. The terms of thespecification and claims are therefore to be broadly interpreted and notrestricted to the narrow meaning of the terms which have been used onlyfor purposes of clarity.

Having described certain preferred embodiments of the invention, variousmodications falling within the basic concept may be apparent to thoseskilled in the art, and for that reason we wish to limit ourselves onlywithin the scope of the appended claims.

We claim:

l. A tray-type double-wall box structure which in erected conditioncomprises a rectangular bottom, side and end wall forming panelsextending from the side edges and end edges respectively of said bottomand forming spaced double walls, each of said side end wall form-ingpanels being delineated by hinge lines to define an outer wall, abridging panel, and an inner wall spaced from said outer wall, the innerwalls of the end wall forming panels being end inner walls, the innerwalls of the side wall forming panels being side inner walls, means formaintaining the bottom hinge lines of said side inner walls in xedrelation to said bottom, bellows fold means interconnecting the adjacentvertical edge portions of said outer walls to facilitate erection andcollapse of said carton, brace means including inner end braces each ofwhich being hinged to its respective vertical edge of said side innerwalls and positioned between its respective end outer wall and end innerwall in face-to-face bracing engagement with an adjacent predeterminedportion of its respective end inner wall, said brace means includingmeans for xedly positioning the bottom hinge edges of said inner endbraces adjacent said bottom and parallel to the end edges of said bottomon lines substantially directly under the inner horizontal hinge line oftheir respective end bridging panels, each of said inner end braceshaving a fold line extending diagonally upwardly from its outermostbottom corner portion to facilitate collapse and erection of said endbraces, and means on said end inner walls operatively engaging saidbrace means to hold the erected carton in braced and interlocked erectedcondition.

2. A tray-type double-wall box structure in accordance with claim l andwherein said means for iixedly positioning the bottom hinge edges ofsaid inner end fraces adjacent said bottom comprise anchor tabsextending from said inner end braces and being iixed in face-to-faceengagement with said bottom, said inner braces and said side inner wallsbeing cut at their common vertical hinge lines to provide slots, andsaid means on said inner end walls include lugs extending from theirvertical edges which engage and lock in said slots to hold the carton inerected condition.

3. A tray-type double-wall box structure in accordance with claim 2 andwherein said bellows fold means comprises bellows fold panels hinged tothe vertical edges or one pair of opposed outer walls, each of saidbellows fold panels being divided by a diagonal score line into a firstportion and a second portion, said second portion being fixed inface-to-face engagement with its respective one of the second pair ofopposed outer walls.

4. A tray-type double-wall box in accordance with claim 1 and whereinsaid means for tixedly positioning the bottom hinge edges of said innerend braces adjacent said bottom comprise bottom tabs extending from saidinner end braces and end wall tabs extending from said bottom tabs, saidend wall tabs being in fixed face-to-face engagement with theirrespective end outer walls, said inner end braces and said bottom tabsbeing cut at their common hinge lines to form depending lugs, and saidmeans on said end inner walls include tuck panels extending from saidend inner walls and sandwiched between their respective bottom tabs andbottom, said end inner walls and said tuck panels being cut at theircommon hinge lines to provide slots which house said lugs to hold thecarton in erected condition.

5. A tray-type double-wall box structure in accordance with claim 4 andwherein said bellows fold means comprises bellows fold panels hinged tothe vertical edges of one pair of opposed outer walls, each of saidbellows fold panels being divided by a diagonal score line into a firstportion and a second portion, said second portion being fixed inface-toface engagement with its respective one of the Vsecond pair ofopposed outer walls.

No references cited.

